Biographies of All Musicians

Although they had little national success, the Royal Jesters is the group most loved by San Antonians.
Oscar Lawson and Henry Hernández started the group in high school because they where inspired by the vocal harmonies of...

Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna, born in Panama City, is one of the most famous poets and singers of salsa music.
Raised in a musical home, he studied law and economics at the Universidad Nacional de Panamá, but...

Rudy Tee (Rodolpho González) and his brother “Red” (Manuel González) first started performing in 1952 in their group Red y Su Conjunto. A year later they changed the name to Conjunto Los Panchitos with...

Wooly Bully charted at Number Two and sold three million copies in 1965, making Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs almost as popular as The Beatles. The song featured the driving organ and vocals of Domingo “Sam” Samudio...

Selena Quintanilla was Tejano music’s biggest star.
She began singing at a very early age as part of a family band her father put together. Back in the ‘60s, he was in a band called Los Dinos that were popular...

Spam Allstars are one of the pioneers of the new Miami-fusion sound, blending Latin funk, electronica, hip-hop, horns, and dub music that was topped off by a live DJ who supplied the foundation with samples.
Formed in 1993, the...

In the San Antonio West Side rhythm and blues scene, the only group who could compete in popularity with the Royal Jesters was the Sunliners, fronted and managed by Sunny Ozuna (Ildefonso Fraga Ozuna).
Sunny started singing and...

The Brat was an influential Chicano punk band from East Los Angeles, California, formed in the late 1970s by singer Teresa Covarrubias and guitarist brothers Rudy and Sid Medina.
The Brat, a hardworking and politically-conscious...

Chicano band The Premiers, out East Los Angeles, California, epitomized the garage rock movement of the early 1960s.
Despite their ephemeral career which produced the enduring hit song -- 1964’s “Farmer John,” a...

The Texas Tornados brought together four musicians who crossed musical and ethnic boundaries:
• Freddy Fender (from San Benito) who started as a rock ‘n’ roll musician then went to Louisiana to pursue his passion...

As pre-teens, brothers Rudy and Steve Salas performed in Los Angeles, California's greater Eastside community rock ‘n’ roll dance circuit, playing a cross-genre style of music incorporating elements of rock and...

Born in 1923 to Puerto Rican parents in New York, Ernesto Antonio Puente studied piano and percussion as a child and was playing professionally while still in his teens. He played briefly with Machito and his Afro-Cubans, the top...

The cover of Sheila E's album. Her song The Glamorous Life hit the Top 10 in 1984. Granddaughter of a musical Mexican immigrant worker, the pop star picked up the drumsticks at age three after watching her father Pete Escovedo and godfather Tito Puente rehearse. She also introduced timbales percussion to Prince’s Purple Rain sessions.

Credit: Unknown

1942: The Bracero Program

During World War II, the U.S. suffered a labor shortage as men were called off to war. To fill the shortage of farm labor, the American and Mexican governments initiated the Bracero (“laborer”) or “guest-worker” program. The program allowed U.S. agri-business to recruit workers in Mexico to work at low wages. Mexicans were fumigated with DDT before being allowed in the U.S., and despite terms created to avoid exploitation of the hired labor, Mexicans were treated poorly once they signed contracts. Pro-civil rights protests and abuse of the program would lead to its end in 1964.

Credit: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Pharaohization! Album

Featuring the popular Tejano influenced group, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Alice Bag

L.A.'s first female punk lead-singer was born Alicia Armendáriz to Mexican immigrants who lived in East L.A. As the front woman for the band The Bags, Alice Bag’s piercing primal shrieks channeled ranchera (a traditional Mexican genre with a single vocalist and guitar) and defined the confrontational vocal style of '70s Hollywood punk.

It’s getting late / I better take you home. / Your mama's worried / oh what will she do? / What will she tell me? / What will she tell you? / Should I take you home / Should I telephone? -- Sunny & the Sunliners

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

"Donna"

Ritchie "Valenzuela" Valens' 1958 hit Donna, based on a cross-cultural love affair, ignited the dreams of scores of Mexican American teenage bands who created their own scene across Southern California. However, it was the flipside of that single, La Bamba, that became his most famous hit.

Credit: Unknown

Luny Tunes

Born in the Dominican Republic, Francisco Saldana and Victor Cabrera spent their teen years in Boston, then moved to Puerto Rico to start a recording studio. They were barely 20 years old when they became the pre-eminent producers of reggaetón.

Credit: Courtesy of The Latin Recording Academy

Wanted by FBI: Willie Colón Album

Armed with trombone and considered dangerous.

Credit: LP jacket and photograph courtesy Experience Music Project

Memory Dance Poster

In the early 1960s, the “Eastside sound” referred to the way Mexican-American teenagers in East L.A. performed Latino rhythm and blues. To this day, Mexican-American musicians recognize the “Eastside” as a major influence.

Credit: Unknown

Malo Album Cover

Malo’s Latin rock anthem, Suavecito, charted at Number 18 in 1972. It was co-written and sung by Richard Bean. The band also included guitarist Jorge Santana (younger brother of Carlos).

Credit: Unknown

1970: Chicano Moratorium Committee

The Chicano Moratorium Committee formed in 1970 to protest the disproportionately high number of Chicano drafts and deaths in the Vietnam War. In August, the Committee planned a peaceful anti-war protest in Los Angeles' Eastside. The event turned chaotic after policed clashed with roughly 20,000 protesters, resulting in 150 arrests, 61 injuries and 3 deaths, including high-profile journalist Ruben Salazar.

Credit: Courtesy of Los Angeles Times

The Bullfight

In 1962, while watching a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico, Jewish trumpeter and A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert was inspired to capture the excitement—and the horn section—of a Mexican bullring in his own music.

Credit: Courtesy of Darin Savage

B-Girl Dancing

Expressed in break beats, rhymes and dance, hip-hop was a participatory style of performance that provided creative opportunities and fun for kids who lived in poor urban neighborhoods like the South Bronx.

Credit: Courtesy of Rasseon

Freddy Fender

Born Baldemar Huerta, this Texan musician borrowed the name "Fender" from his guitar. In 1975 with the remake of his own song Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, he created a rock 'n' roll hit.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Pérez Prado

Damaso Perez Prado moved from Cuba to Mexico City in 1948 and popularized the mambo internationally with a dramatic big band, fronted by singer Beny Moré.

Credit: Unknown

The Latin Grammy Awards

Debuting in 2000, The Latin Grammy Awards honor artistic and technical excellence in the recording arts and sciences. To be considered, a recording must be in Spanish or Portuguese.

Credit: Courtesy of The Latin Recording Academy

El Chicano

El Chicano had a hit in 1970 with Viva Tirado. The song takes a jazz instrumental, adds an intense interplay of drums, conga, lamenting bass and the signature Eastside Hammond B3 organ to reflect the mood of Vietnam War-era East Los Angeles.

Credit: Courtesy of MCA Records

Little Joe y La Familia

Born in Temple, Texas, Little Joe Hernández started his musical career in the Latinaires, and by the late 1950s was leading the band. Inspired by the San Francisco Bay Area Latino music scene, he changed the band’s name to “La Familia” and found success, merging R&B, Tejano, and Latino music. His 1972 Tejano hit Las Nubes (The Clouds), conveyed both Chicano disillusionment and the faith to rise above it. It quickly became the anthem of César Chávez’s United Farm Workers in California.

Credit: Courtesy of La Familia Enterprises

The Conga Line

Evenings at dance clubs often ended with a conga line.

Credit: Courtesy of Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Tango

Left to Right: Ernie Hernandez, Richard Rosas, Mark Guerrero, and John Valenzuela

Credit: Courtesy of Mark Guerrero

2000 Latin Grammy Ticket - Part Only

Credit: Courtesy of The Latin Recording Academy

Machito and Graciela

A singer with her brother’s Machito and the Afro-Cubans for more than 30 years, Graciela introduced the romantic and sensual Cuban bolero to Latin jazz audiences in the U.S. A prolific singer, she was well known by her humorous double-entendre tunes, and performed and recorded until her retirement in the 1990’s.

Credit: William P. Gottlieb / Library of Congress Collection

Arturo Sandoval

One of Cuba’s premier jazz musicians, Arturo Sandoval was born in Artemisa, Cuba, and studied classical trumpet at the Cuban National School of the Arts. In 1977 he met his idol, Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer Dizzy Gillespie, and joined Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra. Later, Sandoval formed his own band and grew to resent the restrictions placed on him by the Castro government. He defected to the U.S. and moved to Miami in 1990.

In 1965 Wooly Bully charted at Number Two and sold three million copies, making Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs almost as popular as The Beatles. The song was driven by organ and vocals of Domingo “Sam” Samudio.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Lyrics to "The Neighborhood"

Lyrics written by Louie Perez of Los Lobos.

Credit: Courtesy of Louie Perez, Los Lobos

Rosie Mendez-Hamlin

In 1959, 14 year-old Mexican American Rosie Mendez-Hamlin wrote the melody and lyrics for Angel Baby. The song became a national hit in 1960.

Credit: Unknown

Santana Young Bloods Poster

Credit: Unknown

Mongo Santamaría's Hands

Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría established himself as one of the premier congueros (conga players) in the Havana dance band scene.

Credit: Herman Leonard Photography

Mexican-American Rock: Land of a Thousand Dances

By the mid-1960s, East L.A.’s “Eastside sound” captured the attention of the nation, including fans overseas like The Beatles. While Ritchie Valens’ success opened the door for other hits by Mexican Americans, including Chan Romero’s Hippy Hippy Shake and Rosie and the Originals’ Angel Baby, scores of teenage dance bands forged the unique Eastside sound. The Premiers, The Blendells, Cannibal and the Headhunters (who opened for The Beatles’ 1965 U.S. tour), and Thee Midniters popularized “brown-eyed soul.” The hits from these groups, including Farmer John, Land of a Thousand Dances and Whittier Boulevard influenced garage bands around the country. Eastside bands also popularized the use of the inexpensive Farfisa organ, used by other Mexican-American-led bands like Michigan-based ? and the Mysterians. In the 1970s El Chicano made more explicit statements of Mexican American political consciousness and pride through songs like Viva Tirado.

Credit: Courtesy of Mark Guerrero

Celia Cruz

In 1959, the year of Castro’s revolution, Celia Cruz left Cuba to tour with the Sonora Matancera and never returned. Cruz restarted her career in the New York salsa scene, performing with Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco and others. The diminutive singer dressed big, commanding the stage with her powerful voice and her signature exclamation, “Azucar!” (Sugar!)

Credit: Courtesy of The Latin Recording Academy

Immigration

Early in the century, Cuban immigrants and newly arrived Puerto Ricans to New York helped shape the distinctively Caribbean cultures of Spanish Harlem and the South Bronx

The band Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a pioneering sound that fused rock, blues, salsa and jazz. Their music featured the melodic, blues-based guitar lines of Mexican immigrant Carlos Santana set against Latin rhythm

Credit: Chad Patka

Fania All Stars

Tico was the most prestigious Latin music label in New York in the 1950s, but smaller labels were sometimes quicker to innovate. Alegre Records in the South Bronx, for example, signed young musicians from the neighborhood. In 1964 renowned bandleader Johnny Pacheco left Alegre and founded the Fania label with businessman Jerry Masucci. With Fania, Pacheco and Masucci launched the salsa music revolution and defined the sound and culture associated with the popular genre

Credit: Courtesy Izzy Sanabria

River Valley Maps

Labor migration has taken the music of South Texas to many parts of the U.S. In Washington state, for example, migrant laborers who came to harvest crops in Washington’s Yakima Valley were reminded of the Rio Grande Valley.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Jiménez Family Legacy

The Jiménez family have been accordionists for generations. Family patriarch Patricio Jiménez learned from German settlers in the region. His son, Santiago Jiménez Sr. (1913-1984), introduced the upright bass to the conjunto ensemble, and grandson Flaco Jimenez (b.1939), popularized conjunto accordion internationally.

Credit: Courtesy of Arhoolie Records

1968: Brown Berets/East LA Walkouts

Using their uniforms to express “Brown Pride,” the “Brown Berets” were young Chicano and Chicana activists who, like the Black Panthers, focused on issues such as unemployment, housing, food, and education. In order to call attention to the unequal educational system in East Los Angeles, the Brown Berets organized “blowouts,” where hundreds of Eastside Mexican American public schools students walked out of class the first week of March in protest of the inferior educational conditions in the school system.

Credit: Courtesy of Los Angeles Times

Los Tigres del Norte

A family band who immigrated to San Jose in 1968, Los Tigres del Norte are famous for story-telling corridos, such as Jaula de Oro (Golden Cage), that give voice to the Mexican immigrant experience. They have received Grammy Awards and other honors for their contributions over four decades.

Credit: Courtesy of Carol Peterson

The Zoot Suit

Accepted neither as American or Mexican, U.S.-born youth of Mexican heritage in the American Southwest developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s. The jazz-loving “pachucos”—and their female counterpart “pachucas”—conjured glamorous identities using their own dialect, called Caló, paired with distinctive, gender-bending fashion (such as zoot suits).

Credit: Courtesy of Library of Congress

Esteban Jordan

“The Jimi Hendrix of the Accordion,” Esteban “Steve” Jordan is known for his technical wizardry and for adapting the conjunto to rock, salsa and other styles of music.

Credit: Courtesy of C.L. Landin

Eddie Palmieri

In the early 1960s Eddie Palmieri’s band, La Perfecta, modernized the Cuban charanga sound with trombones, helping pave the way for salsa music. A commanding piano player and arranger who knows how to get the best out of his musicians, Palmieri has been an innovative force for half a century.

Credit: Unknown

Don Tosti

An accomplished jazz musician and composer, Don Tosti performed with stars such as bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. In 1948 Tosti’s jazz, boogie and blues blend in Pachuco Boogie became the first million-selling Latin single.

Credit: Courtesy of Don Tosti Papers, CEMA 88

Albita Magazine Cover

Albita was featured on the cover and in the cover story, The FEMMES of World Music, of Latin Beat Magazine, September 1995.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Talk To Me Album

In 1963 Sunny and the Sunliners' lead singer, Sunny Ozuna, recorded the hit Talk to Me.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Albita

No Se Parece A Nada Album

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

The Antiques Album

In the early 1970s Cuban Americans grew up listening to Latin rhythms along with rock, pop and funk on American radio. At bailes, or open houses, in Miami and nearby Hialeah, these bicultural kids danced to young garage bands like Coke, Mantrap, and The Antiques, who blended Latin rhythms with U.S. genres.

Credit: Courtesy of Alex Gutierrez www.djalexgutierrezmiami.com

Mongo Santamaría

Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría moved from Cuba to the United States in 1950. His powerful performances with Tito Puente in New York and Cal Tjader in San Francisco made bands everywhere want to add conga drums.

Credit: Unknown

Machito

Machito and His Afro-Cubans Band, rocked the Palladium with an exciting combination of Cuban rhythms and jazz.

Credit: Courtesy of Johan Kugelberg

Mario Bauzá

In 1941 Mario Bauza left Cab Calloway’s band to work as an arranger for his brother-in-law, Frank Grillo (aka Machito).

Credit: Unknown

Mark Guerrero and Tango

Mark Guerrero with Chicano Rock band Tango.

Credit: Courtesy of Mark Guerrero

The Texas Tornados

The Texas Tornados brought together four musicians who crossed musical and ethnic boundaries: Freddy Fender (from San Benito), Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers, and Doug Sahm (all from San Antonio). Fusing rock, country, and various Mexican styles, their music demonstrated this diversity and won them a Grammy for “Best Mexican/American Performance” in 1990. The Texas Tornados (left to right) Flaco Jiménez, Augie Myers, Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender.

Labor migration has taken the music of South Texas to many parts of the U.S. In Washington state, for example, migrant laborers who came to harvest crops in Washington’s Yakima Valley were reminded of the Rio Grande Valley. Some settled in Yakima permanently, including Guadalupe Guzmán and his compadre, bajo sexto legend Santiago Almeida. Guzman’s performances inspired a younger generation of Yakima-born Tejanos to learn conjunto music. Portrait of (l-r) Lupe Guzmán, Joe Guzmán, Joel Guzmán, and Manuel Guzmán, year unknown.

Although they had little national success, the Royal Jesters is the group most loved by San Antonians. Oscar Lawson and Henry Hernández started the group in high school because they where inspired by the vocal harmonies of trios and loved to sing the harmonies.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Sunny & The Sunliners

One of the most popular Chicano bands in San Antonio, Sunny & the Sunliners had many regional hits and worked with national stars like Archie Bell & the Drells and James Brown. In 1963 the band’s singer Sunny Ozuna recorded the hit Talk to Me.

Credit: Courtesy of Ruben Molina

Joe Cuba

The sextet of Puerto Rican percussionist Joe Cuba outplayed bands twice its size, playing pachanga and Latin soul. They were most famous for boogalos, including their biggest hit, Bang Bang, released in 1966.

Credit: Unknown

Fania All Stars Live Poster

2nd Anniversary Concert "Our Latin Thing" at Yankee Stadium. Friday August 24 1973. Tico was the most prestigious Latin music label in New York in the 1950s, but smaller labels were sometimes quicker to innovate. Alegre Records in the South Bronx, for example, signed young musicians from the neighborhood. In 1964 renowned bandleader Johnny Pacheco left Alegre and founded the Fania label with businessman Jerry Masucci. With Fania, Pacheco and Masucci launched the salsa music revolution and defined the sound and culture associated with this popular genre.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Lydia Mendoza

The legendary Tejana musician and singer Lydia Mendoza first recorded with her family in 1928. Her hit, Mal Hombre (Bad Man), in 1934 sparked a solo career that spanned 60 years and earned devoted fans on both sides of the border.

Credit: Courtesy of Lydia Mendoza

Cannibal and the Headhunters

Enamored by Cannibal and the Headhunters’ Eastside rendition of Land of a Thousand Dances, The Beatles invited the band to perform on their 1965 U.S. tour. Photograph of Paul McCartney and Frankie “Cannibal” Garcia during The Beatles’ 1965 U.S. tour.

In 1984 Miami Sound Machine, featuring Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, burst onto the dance charts with the hit Dr. Beat. The band fused the ballads and Latin pop epitomized by singer Julio Igesias with disco, funk and R&B—becoming the most successful Latino music group in mainstream America.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Desi Arnaz

Entertainer Desi Arnaz, who had fled Cuba for Miami after the 1933 Batista takeover, introduced the conga line to Miami Beach in 1937. His 1947 hit single, Babalú, and his star role in the TV show I Love Lucy helped popularize Latin music as fun and light.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Lalo Guerrero

Known as the “Father of Chicano Music,” Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero has a long legacy in Chicano music that runs decades. Lalo can be considered a musical historian who was always articulating the experiences of the Chicano community through music.

Credit: Courtesy of Lalo Guerrero Collection

Latin Jazz Poster

United Clubs & Fraternities First Annual New York Latin Jazz Concert.

Credit: Unknown

S.S. Puerto Rico Passenger List

Between the 1920s and the 1970s, New York’s entertainment industry was a magnet for diverse Latin American musicians. Early in the century, Cuban immigrants and newly arrived Puerto Ricans helped shape the distinctively Caribbean cultures of Spanish Harlem and the South Bronx. Dominicans, Mexicans and other groups from Latin America arrived in later decades.

Credit: Courtesy José R. Méndez, Jr.

Dancing in the Catskills

Willie Torres, dancing with partner in the Catskills, circa 1955.

Credit: Courtesy of Johan Kugelberg

Joan Baez

When her family moved to northern California, legendary folk-singer Joan Baez experienced racial prejudice because of her dark skin and Mexican heritage. In the 1960s Baez's unique soprano supported the civil rights and Mexican American farm worker movements. Her appearance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival added to the political consciousness of the event.

Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Azetca

In 1972 brothers Pete and Coke Escovedo (both members of Santana) founded Azteca, an Oakland band that brought together Latin, jazz and rock musicians. Pete's daughter Sheila (later known professionally as Sheila E.) sometimes sat in on percussion.

Credit: Courtesy of Abel Sanchez

Gloria Estefan 'Caliente!'

Credit: Unknown

Escovedos

Brothers Pete and Coke Escovedo founded Azteca, an influential Oakland band that brought together Latin and jazz musicians. Pete’s daughter Sheila (later known professionally as Sheila E.) sometimes sat in on percussion.

Credit: Unknown

Joe Bataan

Latin soul pioneer Joe Bataan was born in the Bronx to Filipino and African American parents. His 1979 single, Rap-O Clap-O, was one of the first rap recordings and was a smash hit in Europe.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

St. Aphinsus Youth Club Presents:

Teen Dance & Show

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

King of Mambo Album

Born in 1923 to Puerto Rican immigrants in New York, Tito Puente arranged for and directed his own band from 1948 until his death in 2000, a towering figure in mambo, salsa, and Latin jazz. He moved the timbales to the front of the band to draw attention to his spectacular playing, earning him the title, “El Rey del Timbal.”

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

The Premiers

Performing across the nation in Dick Clark’s concert tour “Caravan of Stars,” East L.A.’s The Premiers showcased the Eastside sound, encapsulated in their 1964 hit Farmer John.

Cuban-born Willy Chirino moved to Miami in 1961 at age 14. He soon became an integral part of the city's salsa scene as a composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. During the 1980s Chirino was one of the architects of the "Miami Sound," fusing salsa and pop music. One of Chirino’s most popular songs, Soy, has been recorded by more than 60 musicians. In 2006 his album Son del Alma, won a Grammy for Best Salsa/Merengue Album.

Credit: Courtesy of Willy Chirino and Eventus

Dancing at the Palladium

Dance instructors helped cultivate a multi-ethnic clientele, and bands led by Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez competed fiercely for top billing.

Credit: Courtesy of Getty Images

The Beat Generation

In the late 1960s community spaces in San Francisco, including Dolores Park, Aquatic Park and Golden Gate Park became popular gathering places for drummers who played African and Caribbean styles. Congas and timbales helped define the sound of Bay Area Latin rock.

Credit: Courtesy Estate of Jerry Stoll

Cha Cha Cha Album

Tito Puente began arranging for and directing his own band in 1948. When he died in 2000, Puente was a towering figure in mambo, salsa, and Latin jazz.

Credit: LP jacket reproductions courtesy Experience Music Project

Tito Puente

Born in 1923 in New York, Puerto Rican musician Tito Puente began arranging for and directing his own band since 1948. To draw attention to his spectacular playing, he moved the timbales to the front of the band, earning him the title "El Rey del Timbal"–The King of the Timbales. When he died in 2000, Puente was a towering figure in mambo, salsa and Latin jazz.

Credit: Courtesy Frank Driggs Collection

Selena Quintanilla

Selena Quintanilla was Tejano music’s biggest star. Her recordings—which included polkas, R&B ballads, and especially cumbias—sold well in Mexico as well as the U.S. In 1995 she was murdered just before the release of her first album in her native language—English.

Credit: Arlene Richie , Getty Images

The Plugz Poster

Young musicians in Los Angeles continue to blend Mexican and African American musical forms. With origins in the western Mexican region of Sinaloa, a musical genre called banda became popular in the 1990s among Mexican American youth in Los Angeles. Banda features all-brass instrumentation and is associated with the partner-dancing style La Quebradita. In banda rap, vocalists rap in Spanish over instrumental tracks that fuse hip hop with banda instrumentation and rhythms, including a bass line played on the tuba. The genre speaks powerfully to the experience of Latino youth living between both Mexican and U.S. cultures.

Credit: Courtesy of Sean Carrillo Papers

Pérez Prado Poster

International stars like Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado helped grow the Latin scene in San Francisco.

Credit: Courtesy of Horwinksi Printing Co., Oakland, CA

Los Illegals

Los Illegals, formed in 1979, were an instrumental Chicano band in the vibrant east L.A. punk scene of the early '80s. Founded by principal songwriter, lead vocalist and keyboardist Willie Herron, a local muralist, Los Illegals were a politically-charged punk band with attitude who spotlighted the lives of undocumented workers through music.

Credit: Courtesy of Bavi García

Nuclear Valdez

A Spam Allstars Album

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Coke Album

“Some people think life’s easy, and others say it’s tough - All the people tell me, they’ve just had enough - I’ll tell you all the answer, we just got to love each other” - Coke, “Na Na"

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Spam Allstars Member

Since the 1990s, Miami has been home to a number of multi-cultural bands like Spam Allstars, who blend Latin rhythms with genres such as rock, funk and electronica.

Credit: Raul R. Rubiera

The Palladium Ballroom

The Palladium Ballroom, at 53rd and Broadway, was the mecca of mambo from 1948 to 1966. Dance instructors helped cultivate a multi-ethnic clientele. Bands led by Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez competed fiercely for top billing.

Albita Rodríguez grew up in Havana, Cuba, the daughter of popular folk music singers. By the late 1980s, Albita had become a star in her own right as a singer, songwriter and bandleader who drew on traditional Cuban genres. In 1993 she defected to Miami where she re-defined the Cuban female singer with her powerful voice and androgynous style. Her 2004 album, Albita Llegó, won the Latin Grammy for Best Contemporary Tropical Album.

Credit: Courtesy of Tere Carranza

La Conga Poster

The Conga Girl Poster

Credit: Courtesy of Johan Kugelberg

Los Illegals

In the early 1980s Los Illegals spotlighted the lives of undocumented workers via punk music. The band re-made the pejorative term “illegals” into a badge of ethnic pride.

More than 60 years ago, Eva Ybarra achieved success playing a man’s instrument in a man’s world. Known as the “Queen of the Accordion” she began playing at age four. Eva’s parents, migrant laborer/musicians, were happy she had an alternative to working in the fields.

Credit: Courtesy of Eva Ybarra

Dancing at the Palladium Ballroom

Dance instructors helped cultivate a multi-ethnic clientele, and bands led by Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez competed fiercely for top billing.

Credit: Courtesy of Getty Images

Chano and Dizzy: Cubop

Jazz innovator Dizzy Gillespie loved Cuban music. On the advice of fellow musician Mario Bauzá, Gillespie invited Cuban drummer Chano Pozo to play with his band in 1946. Pozo’s spectacular drumming, dancing, and singing thrilled jazz club audiences. He also collaborated with Gillespie to write tunes like Manteca, which mixed Cuban music with bebop.

Credit: Courtesy Frank Driggs Collection

Santana at the Filmore Poster

Credit: Unknown

Willy Chirino "Asere" Poster

Credit: Unknown

The Freedom Tower

Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Miami has been a destination for many Cuban artists, intellectuals and musicians. Upon arrival, many of them first passed through the Freedom Tower. Located downtown, the building stands as a symbol of Cuban immigration to the United States. Originally the headquarters for the Miami News & Metropolis, from 1962-1974 the federal government used the facility to process, document and provide medical and dental care for the flood of refugees from the Cuban Revolution. It became known as the Freedom Tower,. Today, it is an historic landmark. On July 19, 2003, thousands of music fans visited the site to pay their last respects to the late salsa queen, Celia Cruz, whose body was taken to Miami after her death.

Credit: Courtesy of Ruby Custin www.allography.com

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

In 1962 while watching a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico, Jewish trumpeter and A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert was inspired to capture the excitement—and the horn section—of a Mexican bullring in his own music. Alpert’s interpretation of mariachi music in hit songs like The Lonely Bull and Spanish Flea became enormously popular and helped introduce mainstream audiences to Latin-influenced music.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Willy Chirino "Soy" Sheet Music

Credit: Courtesy of Willy Chirino and Eventus

El Monte Legion Stadium, San Gabriel Valley, 1960s

Teenagers of all races from all over Los Angeles flocked to dances featuring Eastside bands at the El Monte Legion Stadium. The performances brought together multi-cultural youth from segregated, often geographically distant, communities.

East L.A.-based band Quetzal mixes Mexican and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, R&B, and alternative rock. The band links transnational musical movements for social justice through the use of la tarima (stomp box) and son jarocho, a genre from Mexico's Veracruz region.

Credit: Courtesy of Quetzal

New Year's Eve at Fillmore West

Credit: Unknown

Michael Carabello

As a teenager, Mike Carabello played baseball and hung out with drummers at Aquatic Park. When he became the conga player for Santana, he delved deeper into his Puerto Rican musical heritage, bringing records for the band to hear, including Tito Puente’s Oye Como Va.

Credit: Unknown

The Beat Generation

In the late 1960s community spaces in San Francisco, including Dolores Park, Aquatic Park and Golden Gate Park became popular gathering places for drummers who played African and Caribbean styles. Congas and timbales helped define the sound of Bay Area Latin rock.

Credit: Courtesy Estate of Jerry Stoll

Cal Tjader

Cal Tjader Quintet, Featuring Armando Peraza, at The Penthouse, Seattle, WA, May 3-15, [early 1960s] In the 1950s vibraphonist Cal Tjader toured nationally with a Latin jazz quintet and he brought New York-based percussionists Mongo Santamaría and Willie Bobo to San Francisco. Local musicians flocked to hear them at clubs like the Rock Garden on Mission Street.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

1954: Operation Wetback

After World War II, American attitudes toward hiring Mexican farm labor again became more restrictive. In response to the influx of illegal immigrants that accompanied the Bracero Program, the Federal Government initiated Operation Wetback (after an insulting slang term for undocumented Mexican immigrants). Its aim was to stop the border crossing of, and to deport, undocumented workers. Public opposition to unpopular deportation tactics, such as flying deportees to southern Mexico in order to deter them from returning to the border, would force the U.S. government to abandon the operation within a year.

José Santana (center, third from left) taught his son Carlos (forth from left) to play the violin at age five. The two performed professionally in Tijuana before emigrating to San Francisco in the early 1960s. Some people believe that Carlos’ expressive guitar style was influenced by his violin training.

Credit: Courtesy of the Santana Family

Tower of Power

Tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo put together a funky, highly disciplined horn section to create Tower of Power in 1968. Based in Oakland, the multi-racial soul and funk band’s national hits include You’re Still a Young Man.

Credit: Courtesy the Estate of Bruce Steinberg

Celia Cruz & Willie Colón: The Winners Album

Collaborations with singers such as Celia Cruz produced many salsa classics.

Credit: LP jacket reproductions courtesy Experience Music Project

Shelia E.

Pop star and granddaughter of a musical Mexican immigrant worker, Sheila E. picked up the drumsticks at age three after watching her father Pete Escovedo and godfather Tito Puente rehearse. Sheila E. introduced timbales percussion to Prince’s Purple Rain sessions. Her song The Glamorous Life hit the Top 10 in 1984.

Credit: Rob Shanahan

Israel “Cachao” López

Israel “Cachao” López is often credited as the creator of the mambo rhythm and master of the descarga, or Cuban jam sessions. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1918, he moved to the U.S. in 1962, eventually settling in Miami and playing bass on many salsa recordings in New York City. After a period of obscurity, López gained greater attention in 1994 following the release of the album Master Sessions, Volume 1, and a documentary, both produced by Andy García

Cuban singer La Lupe achieved international fame in the early 1960s when she recorded with Tito Puente in New York. La Lupe captivated audiences with her power and passion, burning brightly before her death in 1992.

Credit: Unknown

The Modern Conga Line

“It's the rhythm of the island / And like sugarcane, so sweet / If you want to do the conga / You've got to listen to the beat” --Miami Sound Machine, Conga

Credit: Courtesy of Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Los Tigres del Norte Concert Tickets

Credit: Unknown

From England The Who

Brought to the Fillmore by Bill Graham

Credit: www.wolfgangsvault.com

Juan Luis Guerra

Juan Luis Guerra, cover of Latin Grammy Award album, 2007.

Credit: Juan Luis Guerra 440, La Lave de mi Corazón, 2007

Spam Allstars

Spam Allstars are one of the pioneers of the new Miami-fusion sound, blending Latin funk, electronica, hip-hop, horns, and dub music, topped off by a live DJ who supplies the foundation with samples.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Conjunto Bernal

The Bernal brothers, Paulino and Eloy, from Kingsville, Texas, caused a sensation with their 1958 album, Mi Unico Camino. Their innovative sound, which included three-part vocal harmonies and two accordions, created new audiences for conjunto music.

Credit: Courtesy of C.L. Landin

Tower of Power Poster

Credit: Unknown

Tito Puente

Tito Puente was a towering figure in mambo, salsa and Latin jazz.

Credit: Courtesy Frank Driggs Collection

Laura Canales

Laura Canales reigned as best female vocalist at the Tejano Music Awards from 1983 to 1987. In an era marked by crossover, her music remained rooted in the regional styles of conjunto and orquesta tejana.

An early pioneer of the mambo was the blind tres player Arsenio Rodríguez, who expanded the Cuban conjunto ensemble to give it more volume and rhythmic force.

Credit: Unknown

Rubén Blades

Panamanian singer Rubén Blades is one of salsa music’s greatest poets. His album Siembra, recorded with Willie Colón in 1978, took Latin American by storm with its songs of love, struggle and hope. He ran for president of Panama in 1994.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Bill Graham

Manager of Santana and credited for booking diverse bands at the Fillmore in San Francisco during the late 1960s.

Credit: Michael Zagaris

Lydia Mendoza

The legendary Tejana musician and singer Lydia Mendoza first recorded with her family in 1928. Her hit, Mal Hombre (Bad Man), in 1934 sparked a solo career that spanned 60 years and earned devoted fans on both sides of the border.

Born Richard Valenzuela, Ritchie Valens was the first Mexican American rock star, with four hit records in just eight months. In 1958 the 17-year-old Valens hit Number Two on the pop charts with the doo-wop single, Donna. Its innovative flipside, La Bamba, was a modern interpretation of the son jarocho, a popular musical style from Veracruz, Mexico—an area with both African and Afro-Cuban musical influences. The juxtaposition of a distinctively Latin song with straight doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll perfectly symbolized bicultural Latinos in Southern California. Like many Mexican American youth of his generation, Valens did not speak Spanish and learned the lyrics of La Bamba phonetically.

Credit: Courtesy of Ruben Molina

Narciso Martinez and Santiago Almeida

Playing an instrument similar to the one in this case, accordionist Narciso Martínez made landmark recordings in the 1930s with bajo sexto player Santiago Almeida. Modern conjuntos also include bass and drums, but accordion and bajo sexto remain the core of the Tejano conjunto.

Wolfgang Grajonca escaped Nazi persecution to arrive at a Jewish foster home in New York, where he changed his name to Bill Graham. A lover of Latin music, Graham nurtured San Francisco’s multi-cultural music scene in the late 1960s, managing Santana and booking diverse bands at the Fillmore.

Credit: Baron Wolman

Club Handbill

3 & 1 Club Announces Tito With His Big 14 Piece Band is Coming, But Which One? Get the Answer! Manhattan Center, New York, NY, June 17, 1967

Credit: Courtesy of Johan Kugelberg

1942-1944: Sleepy Lagoon Trial

The Sleepy Lagoon Trial was a Los Angeles murder case that prompted anti-Mexican American violence and rioting. Before an appeals court overturned their unfair convictions, 12 young Mexican American youth and one Anglo -- all considered “Zoot Suiters” -- were found guilty of the alleged murder of José Díaz. The glaring lack of evidence that Diaz had been murdered prompted the formation of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee. It was supported by family members, members of the African American and Jewish communities and Hollywood stars such as Anthony Quinn. In 1944 the convictions were overturned by the U.S. District Court of Appeals.

Credit: Courtesy of Library of Congress

Fearless Four

An old school rap crew from Harlem, New York, best known for their 1982 song Rockin' It.

In 1962 while watching a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico, Jewish trumpeter and A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert was inspired to capture the excitement—and the horn section—of a Mexican bullring in his own music. Alpert’s interpretation of mariachi music in hit songs like The Lonely Bull and Spanish Flea became enormously popular and helped introduce mainstream audiences to Latin-influenced music.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

1943: Zoot Suit Riots

Despite the fact that many young Mexican Americans served in all branches of the armed forces during WWII, the press played up the Sleepy Lagoon case by stereotyping Mexican Americans as dangerous ruffians, transforming the term “Mexican” into a synonym for lawlessness. Racial tensions rose in Los Angeles and events soon led to the Zoot Suit Riots, in which servicemen attacked Mexican American youths at will without police intervention. The riots were largely brought to an end on June 9 when senior military officers declared Los Angeles off-limits to servicemen.

Credit: Courtesy of Library of Congress

Tierra

As pre-teens, brothers Rudy and Steve Salas played in the Greater Eastside community rock ‘n’ roll dance circuit. Their band Tierra made Chicano R&B a forum for social commentary, and their version of Together hit the Top 40 in 1980.

The sextet of Puerto Rican percussionist Joe Cuba outplayed bands twice its size, playing pachanga and Latin soul. They were most famous for boogalos, including their biggest hit, Bang Bang, released in 1966.

Credit: LP jacket reproduction courtesy Experience Music Project

A Texas Tornados Poster

Featuring Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender, Augie Myers, and Flaco Jiménez.

Credit: Courtesy of Sahm Family

1962-1965: United Farm Workers

César Chávez and Dolores Huerta were U.S.-born farm worker activists. In 1962 they formed The United Farm Workers (UFW) to fight for decent working conditions for Mexican American farm workers. Inspired by Mahatma Ghandi, Chávez used nonviolent protest to improve the lives of Mexican Americans. Huerta, an eloquent speaker and lobbyist, was a skilled strategist for the UFW. After joining forces with Filipino workers in 1965, the UFW created an international coalition that boycotted California grapes and led to the improvement of migrant farm-worker contracts.

Since releasing its debut album in 2003, Proyecto Akwid, which was certified platinum and earned it a Latin Grammy for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album, the group has become the leaders of the upcoming banda rap genre.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Mando & the Chili Peppers

Mando & the Chili Peppers is one of the pioneers of Tejano rhythm and blues in San Antonio.

Credit: Courtesy of Ruben Molina

Bacilos

Since the 1990s, Miami has been home to a number of multicultural bands like Bacilos (pictured above), Nuclear Valdez and Spam Allstars (pictured below), who blend Latin rhythms with genres such as rock, funk and electronica.

Credit: By Tim Tadder, courtesy of Bacilos

Lysa Flores

Lysa Flores -- the former lead-guitar player for L.A. punk-pioneer Alice Bag's all-female group, Stay at Home Bomb -- is a singer songwriter, activist, actress and producer. She started her own record label in 1998.

Previous generations of Mexican American artists felt compelled to disguise their ethnic roots. However, by 1987 Linda Ronstadt—one of the biggest-selling singers in U.S. pop music—had the commercial clout to feature her roots on an album of traditional Mexican songs, Canciones de Mi Padre. Backed by Mariachi Vargas, one of Mexico’s finest mariachi bands, Ronstadt’s Spanish-language records broadened the audience for Latino music.

Credit: Courtesy of Neal Preston

Tito Rodríguez

Born in Puerto Rico, Tito Rodríguez became one of New York’s premier bandleaders in the 1950s. Like his rival, Tito Puente, he played both timbales and vibes, but Rodríguez was also a fabulous singer.

Credit: Unknown

Charlie & The Jives

In the 1960s young Chicanos on San Antonio's west side shared musical ideas with African Americans on the east side. The resulting "west side sound" was a style of R&B pioneered by bands like Charlie & The Jives. Featured in photograph left to right: Bobby Taylor, Jimmy Casas, Richard Garza (kneeling), Randy Garibay, Charlie Alvarado.

Credit: Courtesy of Ruben Molina

Mongo Santamaría's Poster at the Fillmore

Credit: Unknown

Daddy Yankee

Daddy Yankee—straight out of Puerto Rico— introduced reggaetón to new U.S. audiences with his 2004 platinum hit, La Gasolina… Duro!

Credit: Courtesy of Getty Images

30 Seconds Over Portland Concert

Featuring The Bags with lead singer Alice Bag.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Girl In A Coma

Influenced by their conjunto musician grandfather, Selena, and Chicana punks of the 1970s and 1980s, Nina and Phanie Díaz and Jenn Alva represent the cutting-edge millennial voice of Tejanas and Chicanas -- citizens of the new Latina bohemia.

Santana’s electrifying performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival vaulted them to national fame, just in time for the release of their first album. Santana’s popularity with Anglo rock audiences was a source of pride for Latinos everywhere.

Credit: Unknown

Sam the Sham Fillmore Poster

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs Little Red Riding Hood concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Pan American Airways Ticket

Pan American World Airways System Passenger Contract Ticket and Baggage Check for San Juan, Puerto Rico to Idlewild, NY, September 12, 1952

Credit: Unknown

Little Havana

Little Havana, a neighborhood just west of downtown, is a center of social, cultural, and political activity for Cuban immigrant residents in Miami. Calle Ocho (SW 8th Street), the main thoroughfare running east-west through the heart of Little Havana, is a neighborhood landmark, and location of the enormous Calle Ocho Festival—a street celebration of Latin culture—each March.

Credit: Courtesy of Ruby Custin www.allography.com

Austin American Stateman Ad

Featuring the Texas Tornados. December 17, 1998

Credit: Courtesy of TuneFan Jim, www.tunefan.com

Miami Sound Machine

In 1984 Miami Sound Machine, featuring Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, burst onto the dance charts with the hit Dr. Beat. The band fused the ballads and Latin pop epitomized by singer Julio Igesias with disco, funk and R&B—becoming the most successful Latino music group in mainstream America.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

The Brat at Club Vex

In East L.A., Club Vex unleashed bands that voiced the inequities of barrio-living in songs such as Los Illegals’ El Lay, about a worker arrested for washing dishes. The Undertakers, The Brat, and The Odd Squad meshed ska, corrido and mod beats with driving guitars and outrageous fashion.

Credit: Courtesy of Sean Carrillo Papers

Los Lobos

Los Lobos is one of most original, eclectic, and commercially successful Mexican American bands to blend Mexican R&B, Tex-Mex, and punk. After starting out as roots rockers, they spent eight years focusing on traditional Mexican instruments and evolving their sound. In 1987 they crossed over with a cover version of La Bamba for a Ritchie Valens biopic. But their true legacy is as one of the most popular Mexican American bands to effortlessly blend their myriad influences into a unique sound that appeals to a diverse audience across the U.S. and Europe.

Credit: Drew Reynolds

Gloria Estefan

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Gloria Estefan emerged as one of the biggest pop stars and went on to become the most popular crossover artist in Latin music history, garnering seven Grammy Awards and sales of more than 80 million albums.

Credit: Courtesy of EMP

Flaco Jimenez

In 2009 Jimenez collaborated with the Hohner instrument company on a signature series of accordians. Flaco Jimenez continues to perform and record and is regarded by many as the “Father of Cunjunto Music.”

Credit: Courtesy of Annie Leibovitz

Pachuco Boogie

Pachuco boogie was Mexican American dance music that alternated between African American and Afro-Caribbean styles. In the late 1930s young Mexican Americans invented a counterculture that expressed social tensions through attitude, fashion, dance and eclectic musical tastes. Known as pachucos and pachucas, they favored zoot suits and big band swing. In the late 1940s Don Tosti and Lalo Guerrero created Mexican American jump blues, or pachuco boogie, which used swing, boogie woogie and rumba rhythms with lyrics in Spanish and Caló, the pachuco’s hipster language. Pachuco boogie exuberantly transformed the painful “in-between” experience of Mexican American fans; brought together Mexican, Anglo and African American audiences and laid the foundation for Mexican American music.